St Peter’s Cardross on global endangered sites list

St Peter’s Seminary at Cardross by Gillespie Kidd and Coia and Mavisbank have made it on to the World Monument Fund’s list of the 100 most endangered sites for 2008.

The WMF, which has its headquarters in New York, is the foremost private, non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of endangered architectural and cultural heritage sites across the globe.

The St Peter’s Building Preservation Trust said that they were really delighted by the news. “We will be working hard with other interested groups and individuals over the summer to build on this publicity. This provides a real opportunity to save and re-use the building. We are really looking forward to the publication of the Conservation study commissioned by Historic Scotland, Argyll and Bute and the Archdiocese,” said a spokesman for the group, which is campaigning for the re-use of the building.

The World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites is drawn up by an international panel of experts, to identify important sites in need of international attention to help to raise funds for their rescue. Since 1965, WMF has worked with local communities and partners to help save more than 450 irreplaceable sites in more than 90 countries, ranging from the vast temple complexes at Angkor, Cambodia, to the historic center of Mexico City; Nicholas Hawksmoor’s London masterpiece, St. George’s, Bloomsbury; the iconic modernist A. Conger Goodyear house in Old Westbury, New York; and the 18th-century Qianlong Garden complex in Beijing’s Forbidden City. For the full list of sites visit www.wmf.org

I lived in this facility as a seminarian from 1972 to 1975. The environment created by this structure was both inspirational and surreal. Studying theology in such a beautiful, open, and sunlit establishment gave me hope that religion was adapting to the modern world. While it failed to realize that part of my dream, the experience of the architecture was worth every minute of it. Few people saw this facility in its heyday. If you had seen its presence, futuristic yet serene, man-made yet at one with its natural surroundings, you would praise the genius of its design. It is worth saving, and I am pleased that there people out there that agree.